Anonymous and Lulz Security issued a joint statement asking their supporters to withdraw funds and close their PayPal accounts, after PayPal's refusal to handle donations to Wikileaks.

"In recent weeks, we've found ourselves outraged at the FBI's willingness to arrest and threaten those who are involved in ethical, modern cyber operations. Anonymous 'suspects' may face a fine of up to 500,000 USD with the addition of 15 years' jailtime, all for taking part in a historical activist movement," say the groups.

"Many of the already-apprehended Anons are being charged with taking part in DDoS attacks against corrupt and greedy organizations, such as PayPal."

"Tweet pictures of your account closure, tell us on IRC, spread the word," they hackers say. "PayPal's willingness to fold to legislation should be proof enough that they don't deserve the customers they get. They do not deserve your business, and they do not deserve your respect."

"PayPal continues to withhold funds from WikiLeaks, a beacon of truth in these dark times.

"By simply standing up for ourselves and uniting the people, PayPal still sees it fit to wash its hands of any blame, and instead encourages and assists law enforcement to hunt down participants in the AntiSec movement," LulzSec and Anonymous wrote in an online posting.

LulzSec and Anonymous are both known for stealing and releasing private information from websites with poor security.

Paypal incurred the wrath of online activists, including Anonymous and Lulz Security, when it appeared to bow to pressure from the US government to stop handling donations to Wikileaks in December 2010.

Shortly afterwards the site suffered several denial of service attacks.